CALM BEFORE STORM
Stoinis relaxed and ready
CRICKET: Marcus Stoinis will go for a walk this morning. A slow walk. It’s a game-day ritual for the Big Bash blaster, who spends the hours before he explodes on the pitch doing everything he can to keep things calm, regardless of the magnitude of the match.
Stoinis, named the player of the BBL this week after smashing a tournament-high 607 runs in the regular season, will also turn to his focus and visualisation exercises.
All that bashing he does with the bat, including the BBL record 147 not out he smashed at the MCG in January, comes from having a clear mind, and a clear plan.
He sees the deep “pockets” at the MCG, a ground he loves like no other. He visualises hitting the new shots he has added to his armoury this year, like the flick off his hip he copied off his Melbourne Stars captain Glenn Maxwell.
Stoinis is no one-hit BBL wonder either. The hulking opener clubbed 533 runs last season too, third highest in the tournament.
His is a recipe for Big Bash success and it’s one he will stick to when the Stars’ entire season goes on the line tonight.
“I basically don’t want to be rushed on game day. Everything is at a relaxed pace,” Stoinis said.
“I like a feeling of being in control of everything because that’s how I want to be leading in to the game. I have a few focus exercises I do, a few visualisation exercises and then it’s about, when I say a clear mind, it’s about being as clear as I can be about what I want to do out in the middle.
“Certain players will want to be in a different frame of mind, they’ll want to be running around a bit more high energy. We all fit in with the team but you do your own thing.”
His individual success is born out of a team environment at the Stars which Stoinis says “feels like home” when they return every December.
He’s never played for another BBL team and even when he left Victoria to move back to WA after the death of his father, the 30year-old stayed with the green team.
There could have been a move. Recognised as a reliable Big Bash performer, the Perth Scorchers went hard at him.
Stoinis though said you “can’t underestimate” the worth of the environment in which each different team exists when it comes to performance.
The Stars, with a mantra for players to “express themselves” is where he fits best.
“A big part of what we want to do is create an environment where when everyone leaves they see that as the best time of their career, their life, or whatever it is,” the 30year-old said.
“For a lot of us that’s creating an environment where people feel that they have that freedom to express themselves.”
What Stoinis would really like to add is a BBL title, something the Stars, for all their other successes, have never won.
The path has been muddied by a first-up finals loss, and the inevitable ’chokers’ tag was hurled his team’s way.
Stoinis however, expressing himself as per the club’s well-held, judgment-free motto, is having none of that.
“I’d rather be us than any other team,” he said.
“We have played in the most finals as a team out of anyone, and yes we haven’t won, but I’d still rather be us. There are good things happening every year and I’d rather be in with a chance to win it every year than not.”